Special Sheep
by Cehsja
Summary: A sheep farmer's report about his missing sheep sends the team on a long forest camping trek to find an unknown predator. Conby & Danny/Sarah. Plus... Conby vs. Becker in a war that includes marshmallows, tranquilizers, singing & honey.
1. Creature Incursion

**A/N This is a repost of a story I wrote a year ago, though I've made some changes and edits and added in page breaks where appropriate now that fanfiction allows that feature. I haven't abandoned my other stories I'm working on, just planning on reposting this at the same time. This takes place right after the herd of Embolotherium comes through the anomaly in Series 3 Episode 9, but in this timeline, they never go chasing Helen through time right afterwards, they just finish up with that anomaly and things go back to normal afterward. (If you can call anything that happens at the ARC normal…)**

So far, the day had been quiet. Connor was sitting at the ADD doing a few upgrades to it. Abby was watching him and casually clamouring on about how Rex was really missing him at home, but Connor wasn't quite getting the hint that she was wanting him to ask her if he could move back into her flat.

On the other side of the room, Sarah was carefully examining the diary that Danny had given her to read and Danny and Becker were standing just to the side discussing the ARC's security system. Everything seemed normal and peaceful for the time being, but it didn't last long.

Lester suddenly appeared on the ramp as he descended from his office and clapped his hands together, "Alright, we've got a new creature sighting in a forest near the farmlands away west from here. A sheep farmer has complained that his sheep are being carried off and eaten at an alarmingly fast rate."

Connor looked up, puzzled, "There's been no anomaly alerts. Are we sure it's not just a wolf or fox of some sort? Maybe even a bear?"

"That's what I said, but the farmer insists that he has special sheep that would not be taken in by such small animals."

Becker choked slightly on the tea he was drinking as he tried to contain his amusement, "Special sheep, Sir?"

Lester threw his palms into the air in a gesture that symbolised that he didn't understand it himself, "Apparently he was quite persistent on the fact. The minister has insisted that we look into it, mostly to get the farmer off his back I presume. Still, we have received some photos that lead us to believe that perhaps he is right. There is a lot of damage in the forest nearby that does not look like it was caused by a wolf or bear. Take a look."

Becker shook his head, "You know, my parents are sheep farmers, I should tell them about the special sheep that are immune to predators."

Everyone in the ARC turned and gave Becker a surprised look and he stared back at them puzzled, "What? I said they were sheep farmers; I didn't say my parents were sheep."

"It's not that, we just didn't realise that Action Man had parents," Connor stated simply.

"Of course I have parents."

"Well you really never talk about your personal life," Sarah said, "Just surprised us, that's all."

Connor left the ADD and began hoping around Becker giddily, "Did you have to help them when you were growing up? Just imagine little Action Boy rounding up sheep! Did you ever sheer them? What about bottle feed the lambs?"

"Connor, shut up!" Abby called across the room, worried for his safety when she saw the look on Becker's face.

"Excuse me, but did anyone hear that we have a creature incursion?" Lester asked pointedly.

That stopped Connor and he finally ran over to Lester and took the photographs from his hand. "Wow," he said, glancing through them, "Farmer's right, it's no wolf that made this mess."

The others crowded around Connor trying to see over his shoulder. The destruction in the forest was quite immense. Trees had been knocked out all over the place leaving a visible trail that could be seen even from the air as was demonstrated in a couple of the pictures.

"Well, should be no problem following this thing then," Danny said, "The trail's clear enough. Let's go!"

"Bring supplies," Abby urged, "the distance this thing has travelled is far, it could be a few days trek before we get to the end of this trail. How long did it take to make this path?"

"Sheep farmer said it's been three days," Lester answered.

"That's a lot of damage for three days!"

They stood, staring at the photos in amazement at the destruction until Lester cleared his throat, "Ahem, why are we all standing here?"

"Right," Danny replied, "Come on guys, let's go!"

They took off running. Becker, Danny and Abby climbed into one vehicle heading straight for the forest where the trail started and Connor and Sarah climbed into the next with the intention of picking up the supplies and meeting them after.


	2. Intensity

Intense. That was the word the team usually used to describe Danny when they wanted him to stop watching them. They usually phrased it in the following manner: "Hey, Danny, you're looking a bit intense right now, what's up?" Roughly translated it meant, "Quit staring at me and mind your own business."

But Danny felt that it was in his best interest as Team Leader to study his team carefully. He watched them so that he could learn all their habits. What did they do when they were angry, upset, nervous? For example, he had learned that, when nervous, Connor rambled, Sarah tilted her head and flipped her hair, Abby darted her eyes in every which direction before deciding to stare at the ground and Becker smiled thinly and polished his gun. If they had gone beyond nervous and were in the scared stiff stage, Connor would freeze up, Abby would yell, Becker would start shooting the aforementioned gun and Sarah, well, Sarah hid, usually behind Danny himself if he was available, but if he wasn't she'd just casually leave the scene and go elsewhere. By learning these things, Danny was able to judge who to send on where when on a mission. He might come across as a bit intense, but it was for their own protection that he stared.

For the most part, their nervous reactions had nothing to do with the creatures. Abby and Connor had switched into their nervous habits every time they brought up their living arrangements lately. It was obvious to Danny that they both wanted to live together again, but both were nervous about asking. Becker got nervous whenever paperwork was mentioned, though it'd taken Danny a long time to notice that, and Sarah was nervous when she lied, which came in rather handy because he could always tell if she was telling the truth or not now. He never let this on to her, but he had long ago figured out that she had gone through the anomaly that the knight had come through.

Danny had also observed that, with Abby, Connor, & Becker, the scared stiff emotion set in when a creature was attacking another team member far more than it did when it was attacking themselves. Danny liked that, it meant he could count on them all when he needed them. Sarah he wasn't so sure about. When she'd been hired, she wasn't even supposed to be out in the field but during the last few missions she'd insisted. And yet, despite her insistence that she was fine, she really _really _didn't do well with the creatures. She'd stayed behind him when the draconex was in view, the insects had just plain terrified her, even the small ones, the terror birds again she'd mostly hid behind Danny or sometimes Connor when they were around, and the embolotherium had found her, according to Abby, crawling through them on her hands and knees, much to the young blonde girl's amusement.

But then again, Connor hadn't actually been trained to fight when he'd first joined either, according to the reports, he'd just learned as he went, but it seemed he'd done a pretty good job and he'd never run from the creatures like Sarah. To be honest, Danny couldn't figure out why she always insisted on coming with them, and yet, he just couldn't refuse her company either. He really did enjoy having her around. Himself, he actually worked better with her standing behind him. His urge to protect and impress her strengthened his will to defend them both. Besides, Sarah was the only team member who didn't think he was "intense and creepy" when he stared. She just casually stared back at him as if studying him herself. And more than likely, that's exactly what she was doing. Sarah was a terrific researcher and could read people as well as himself, perhaps better. The thought made him a bit nervous as he wondered just how much she had discovered about himself. Danny's nervous habit was to crack his knuckles and he did that now.

"Danny, that's disgusting!" Abby commented from the back seat of the car as they pulled up at the start of the newly created forest trail.

"Sorry," Danny shrugged, as he climbed out of the passenger seat and looked around. Becker and Abby got out too and also surveyed the area. Danny carefully ran his hand over the bark of a tree that had been crushed and trampled to the ground, wondering about the size of the dinosaur that must have done this.

"Over here!" Abby called out, bending towards the ground.

Becker and Danny ran towards her and saw the large footprint that she was looking at.

"What on earth made that?"

"Spinosaurus, most likely," she replied, "Largest carnivorous dinosaur in history."

Becker raised one of his eyebrows, impressed, "I see one of us pays attention to Connor then."

Abby blushed and focused closely on the footprint and Danny put a hand on Abby's shoulder, "So, how do we deal with this thing?"

Abby shrugged, "Dunno yet. We'll have to see what sort of a mood it's in when we find it."

"Shouldn't be too hard I wouldn't think."

Abby shook her head, "No, this trail will lead us right to it. We just gotta wait for Connor and Sarah now."

Even as she spoke the black car carrying the last two team members pulled up and Connor and Sarah emerged with their camping supplies in case they were gone for a few days.

"Alright then," Danny said, taking a bag from Sarah and shrugging it onto his shoulders, "Let's go."


	3. Sarah's Hunch

Connor and Abby chatted casually as they followed the trail of broken trees and footprints deep into the forest They didn't have to worry about missing anything since the trail was so obvious and seemed to go on for a long way yet. The rest of the team remained silent, mostly because it was in their personality but partly because they were shamelessly eavesdropping on their two chatterboxes and wondering whether it would be Connor or Abby that finally got up the nerve to ask if they could live together again.

In the end it was Abby. About four hours after their conversation had started she was relaying a cute story about Rex to Connor and Connor had sighed and said wistfully, "Aw, I wish I could have seen that."

Abby had hesitated and then said as casually as possible, her eyes darting to the ground, "Well, if you miss him that much, you could always move back in now that Jack's gone, if you want to I mean, no big deal either way."

The rest of the team tried to hide their delighted smirks that she'd finally asked and they knew that his answer really was a big deal to her.

Connor's face lit up as he replied graciously, "Really? I mean, that's great, Abs, 'cuz you know, I was really missing them and I think Lester's getting a bit impatient with me. He wants his own place back he said and…"

"Connor," Abby interrupted him, confident again now that she had her affirmative answer. She placed her hand on his arm gently and looked up at his face, searching, "It's fine. Really."

Connor exhaled, "Thanks Abby."

After that, even Abby and Connor fell quiet for a bit, not knowing what else to say. It was then that Danny turned his attention back to Sarah and noticed something that worried him a bit. He noticed that she kept glancing deep into the woods on the western side of the trail. Danny could tell that something was bothering her even if she remained silent and he didn't know what. He changed his pace to match hers and moved closer to her side.

"Sarah, you're being quiet," he said, "is anything wrong?"

Sarah tilted her head to the side as she looked at him and flipped her hair behind her head and Danny knew that she was lying when she told him that everything was completely fine. Danny glanced at the others who had stopped walking to watch and nodded in the direction of the trail. "You guys go on ahead. Sarah and I will catch up to you in a moment," he ordered as he held Sarah back by the elbow.

Once they were gone he crooked his index finger and lifted her chin with the back of it until her eyes met his, "Sarah, talk to me."

"Danny, it's nothing."

Danny followed her gaze into the western forest depths, "What do you think is out there?" he pursued.

"Look, Danny," Sarah said pointedly and to Danny's relief she looked at him straight on and left her hair alone now, "I don't know. Most likely I'm just a bit nervous, I mean, it's a Spinosaurus for Pete's sake. I'm getting used to all this but, I'm not there yet, okay?"

Danny didn't think that it was just a case of nerves that was bothering Sarah this time, but he thought that she believed it so he let it slide and placed his arm around her shoulders as he led her back down along the trail to join the others. Sarah glanced up at him gratefully.

"You know I'll look after you, right?" He asked as the others came into view, they were sitting on a log waiting for Danny and Sarah to arrive.

Sarah nodded silently as they joined the group.

"I think we should stop here," Abby said, "It's a good place to camp for the night and it's starting to get dark. If we don't set up the tents now we won't have enough light to do so later."

The team looked to Danny to await his decision and he nodded his approval in Abby's direction and began giving out orders, "Okay, Sarah and Becker, you two set up the tents. Connor I want you setting up traps so that if anything comes by in the night, we'll wake up. Abby, you're with me. We'll get some firewood, light the fire, and cook us some dinner."

They walked off together and began picking up as much firewood and kindling as they could find. Abby suggested splitting up to find more, but Danny refused, thinking that it wouldn't be a good idea, not with the Spinosaurus loose somewhere. He glanced at Abby after a bit.

"So, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" He asked her casually.

"What?"

"Convincing Connor to move back in with you."

Abby blushed, "Shut up, Danny."

"Just sayin'. You could have had him back ages ago you know."

"Is Sarah okay?" Abby changed the subject pointedly.

Danny shrugged, "Honestly, Abs, I'm not worried about Sarah so much as whatever it is that's bothering Sarah."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know yet."

Abby looked at him strangely and Danny knew he was being vague but he didn't know how to explain it. Sarah had thought it was just nerves, but Sarah hadn't been nervous, that was the problem. None of her usual nervous behaviours had shown up until he'd questioned her. Sarah felt something was amiss and Danny trusted to Sarah's hunches. That was it. Danny had a hunch that Sarah had a hunch that there was more to this whole episode than what met the eye. Now that wouldn't complicate matters at all, would it?

He sighed and nodded towards the direction of the camp, beckoning Abby to follow him back.


	4. Of Ghosts and Ghouls

Becker watched Sarah carefully as she hammered one of the tent pegs into the ground. Finally he spoke what was on his mind, "Sarah, everything's okay, right?"

"Why is everyone asking me that? I'm fine."

"Sorry, it's just that Danny seemed concerned before, thought maybe he knew something. Just checking."

Sarah sighed and pounded a bit harder at the peg while Becker worked on the one beside her. After a long silence he asked her, "You like him, don't you?"

"Who?"

"Danny."

"Of course I like Danny. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, he arrested Connor, undermined Jenny and broke into the ARC." Becker didn't actually hold any grudge against Danny, no one on the team did, and it wasn't what he'd meant when he'd asked Sarah if she liked him, but he couldn't resist teasing her anyway.

Sarah shrugged and grinned teasingly, "Sure, but he didn't do any of that to me personally, so you know, it's all good."

Becker laughed, "Still, you seem quite close to him."

"Yeah, I guess," Sarah said hesitantly as she tilted her head to look at him, wondering where this was leading.

"Do you find him a bit creepy?"

Sarah shook her head, "No, why?"

"That's my point. The rest of us do at times. Don't get me wrong, we all like him but he stares at us so intently at times. It's weird. He's a bit touchy feely too, don't you think? I mean, he even tried to hug me once!"

Sarah laughed, "Doesn't bother me." That was actually the understatement of the century. She had noticed of course. Most of the time that they were together on the field, Danny did indeed hold her hand or keep his arm around her. At first she'd just figured it was for protection, like when they'd been running from the terror birds, but then she'd noticed that it wasn't always the case. At times when they were perfectly safe, like when they'd been walking the knight back to the anomaly or even just an hour ago out here, Danny had kept his arm tightly around her shoulders. Sarah had to admit her heart sped up a bit faster each time. He made her feel special and protected.

"That's what I mean," Becker said, "You like it when he touches you. That's why he keeps you so close all the time, you don't pull away."

"And you're saying I should?"

"No, but you should be aware that you're encouraging him. He likes you, Sarah, a lot."

"Well, I should hope so. Are you saying I'm not generally likeable?"

Becker laughed, knowing she was teasing him and also knowing that she was purposely avoiding his point. He'd have to be a bit more straightforward so she couldn't back out of it.

"Well, if you asked me, I'd say Danny's in love with you."

Sarah hesitated and then surprised Becker by responding with an honest grin, "Hope you're right."

Then she walked away to think for a bit, leaving a grinning Becker to finish the tents on his own.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later Abby and Danny rejoined them and Danny called everyone over as he stood looking at the temporary shelters that Sarah and Becker had put up.<p>

"Uh, I hate to say this, but it seems someone can't count." Danny pointed out. "I see five people and four tents."

"Yeah, um, sold out they were." Connor said, looking pointedly at Sarah, but she was having none of it.

"That's not true," Sarah teasingly corrected him.

The others raised their eyebrows questioningly and Danny cleared his throat. "So, then, two of us will have to share. This probably works out for the best anyway, seeing as Connor needs constant supervision. Becker, he's with you."

Becker's face looked horrified and Connor mumbled something about not surviving the night, but Sarah saw that, despite the fact that his expression hadn't changed at all, Danny was teasing them.

"No bloody way!" Becker said.

Danny's face remained serious but he noticed that Sarah wasn't buying it and squeezed her hand to keep her quiet. When had he even taken her hand? He couldn't remember doing so. Funny how it seemed to natural for him to hold it now. She wasn't pulling away, she never did, so he saw no reason why he shouldn't.

"Sorry, Becker," Danny said, "One of us has to, and I'm pulling rank here."

Abby giggled at the thought but then offered graciously, "It's fine, Becker, Sarah and are small; we can share."

Danny felt Sarah's hand stiffen a bit in his. That was odd. Why was Sarah uncomfortable with that idea? She got along fine with Abby, he thought. He'd question her about it later, but in the meantime he refused to put her in that position.

"No, see, that still leaves us with the problem of Connor being left unsupervised."

Sarah relaxed again and then spoke up, "Actually…"

"Shut up, Sarah!" Connor said pointedly, but Sarah ignored him.

"Actually, we don't really have a problem, Danny. I didn't say anything sooner because I liked your little joke there, but we bought the tents with specific sleeping arrangements in mind. See, I was going to buy five, but Connor pointed out to me… what was it again, Con?"

Connor pursed his lips together, "You better not tell them exactly what I said, Sare, or I will get back at you."

"Oh, no worries, I can't remember the exact wording, but it was something about the dark, some ghouls and ghosts, the heebie jeebies I believe and needing Abby's protection at night…did I miss anything?"

Connor glared at her and Becker raised his eyebrows in amusement.

Abby smiled up at Connor though and happily teased him, "Aww, Baby, don't worry, I'll take good care of you."

Connor's face lit up again, "Well, you know, we could protect each other of course."

"Whatever you want," Abby laughed, "Whatever you want."

Danny chuckled and dropped Sarah's hand, "Alright then, it's settled. Come on, Abby, let's get this campfire started so we can eat."


	5. Marshmallows

**A/N yesterday my friend went to Rwanda and met one of my sponsor kids and took all kinds of extra photos and even a video of her for me... I was so excited about that, that I forgot to upload a chapter of this story... so to make up for it, I've uploaded two today. So yeah, I'm not sure if you get TWO notifications or just one since I'm uploading together but if you're confused... make sure you didn't miss chapter 4 before reading this one.  
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Danny didn't believe he'd ever been angrier in his life than he was at Sarah right now. He had to do his best to contain his anger and not tramp loudly through the forest though. It was actually very hard to tiptoe around silently when furious, he decided, but he didn't want Sarah to know he was there.

*Seven Hours Earlier….*

The team had just finished dinner when Sarah had surprised them all with a bag of marshmallows and some roasting sticks. "Picked them up when we bought the tents," she grinned, "Figured if we're gonna be camping, we may as well have some fun."

The team had talked and laughed as they roasted the marshmallows: everyone except Sarah that is. Danny could see that whatever had been bothering her earlier was getting worse and stronger. She just kept staring into the distant west and she'd begun to get nervous. He wasn't sure if she was nervous because of her hunch, or because she was planning on doing something about it without telling them. He hoped for the former but had a feeling it was the latter.

Connor convinced everyone except Becker to join him in some campfire songs, but as soon as the bag of marshmallows was empty, Sarah had quickly excused herself for bed and said she was tired. As usual, though, her head tilt and hair flip told Danny that she wasn't tired at all. She was up to something and he really hoped it wasn't what he thought it was.

Becker headed for bed a moment later and it didn't take long before his snores rang out through the camp. Danny glanced at Abby and Connor who looked more than slightly hyped up on sugar overload.

"You two, don't stay up much later and do NOT forget to put the fire out. I'm heading in for the night."

He turned and climbed into his tent to, but he opened the window flap a little bit and didn't go to sleep. He wanted to keep an eye on the entrance to Sarah's tent to make sure she didn't try to sneak out and also on the campfire to make sure that Abby and Connor actually did remember to put it out.

As he watched, he saw that Abby and Connor had produced, from somewhere or another, two more bags of marshmallows. He didn't know how they could possibly still be hungry but then he realised that wasn't what they were for at all. They each had a bag and were now chasing each other around the fire pelting one another with the soft white candies. Danny couldn't help but to think that this was a really, really, bad idea. Abby let out a shriek as Connor managed to dump a full handful of them down the back of her shirt and the snoring in Becker's tent suddenly ceased.

Danny darted from his tent and stood at the entrance and noticed Sarah coming out of hers to watch as well. Becker was on the two in moments and, to Danny's horror, waving his favourite gun between the two trouble makers as he confiscated Abby's bag of marshmallows. When he re reached for Connor's however, Connor made the stupid mistake of throwing a fistful of them at Becker's face.

Danny knew he had to intervene quickly and he stepped between the pair. "Becker, put the gun down now!"

"But…"

Danny snatched the gun from Becker's hand and the marshmallows from Connor's and ordered everyone back to bed before putting the campfire out himself and returning to his tent, placing Becker's gun safely under the pillow.

The silence had, amazingly, lasted almost an hour before the air was once again filled with Becker's snoring and a lot of loud whispering and giggling coming from the shared tent on the far side of Becker's. Danny sighed and went back to focusing on Sarah's tent. So far so good, he detected no movement from the area. He was almost drifting off to sleep when another shriek, Abby again, filled the air and the snores stopped again.

Just as he got the zipper of his tent open and stepped out, seeing Sarah doing the same on the other side of him, two shots rang out clearly and Becker appeared from the troublemakers tents.

"Don't worry!" He called over his shoulder to Danny and Sarah, "I only tranquilized them. They'll be out until morning now."

Danny groaned, "I didn't see it, I don't know it happened, I am not a witness to this."

"Me neither!" Sarah called out quickly.

"Good, I knew you'd understand," Becker grinned and returned to his own tent once more.

When Becker started snoring for the third time, Danny suddenly wondered if Sarah was waiting until they were all asleep. He really hoped she wouldn't be so dumb as to wander off on her own, but the feeling inside him that she was planning just that, kept growing. He pretended to snore himself as he peeked out the window and a few moments later, to his horror, Sarah quickly slipped from her tent and took off into the forest.

Danny very quietly slipped into her tent to see if she'd left a note or anything and found absolutely nothing. Great. How stupid could she be? She was actually walking alone, towards what he knew she thought was some sort of danger, in a forest at night with a loose Spinosaurus. What the hell was she thinking? And it wasn't that she was honestly stupid, because Danny knew that she was a genius. The fact that she knew how dangerous this was made him even angrier at her.

And it wasn't just herself that she'd put into danger. Did she not realise that the rest of the team would worry when she wasn't there in the morning? Did she not think they'd go searching for her? Danny had known she was planning something all evening and he knew that this wasn't a last minute decision from her leaving her forgetting the basic rules of safety.

He quickly scrawled a note saying that himself and Sarah had gone to investigate a second lead and that the rest of the team should stay on the Spinosaurus' trail and they'd meet up with them later. Then he grabbed a backpack full of supplies and left the note tied inside the door of Connor and Abby's tent, knowing that he couldn't accidentally wake the pair of them up when he entered, and took off following Sarah and feeling angrier and angrier as she headed further and further away from the camp.


	6. Honey

Abby woke up with a terrible hangover. Except, that wasn't possible; she hadn't been drinking. She groaned as she tried to massage the pain out of her head. What on earth had happened last night? Where was she?

She sat up as she tried to remember and cringed as the pain in her head increased. It was still really dark and she couldn't see much, but the soft breathing beside her told her that she wasn't alone. Connor. Suddenly the memory of the night before came flooding back.

She and Connor hadn't been hurting anything, they'd been having a bit of fun and then Becker had charged into their tent and shot them both! Abby harrumphed indignantly at the memory as she pulled the dart from her arm and then turned her attention to Connor and removed his as well. Poor Connor, he'd be waking up any moment and experiencing the same pain that she was.

She gently lay down at his side and stroked his cheek with the back of her hand, "Poor, poor Connor," she whispered. She didn't know why, but she felt like it was her job to take care of him.

As she lay there whispering to him and stroking the side of his face, she remembered back to a couple weeks ago when she'd actually gotten up the courage to kiss him. It'd been wonderfully romantic, but she hadn't known what to say afterwards and she'd been relieved when Danny had called out that it was time to go so that she could just walk away. Since that afternoon, they hadn't really talked about it. She had told him that she didn't want things to be weird between them, but she didn't mean they couldn't be a couple just so long as it didn't ruin their friendship too. Only Connor either didn't understand that, or he wasn't interested in her because he never made a move back. She hoped it was only the former.

She saw Connor's eyes start to flutter a bit and decided that she'd help ease the residual pain from the tranquilizer as best as she could. With her thumb, she gently massaged his forehead, hoping that it was helping and not hurting.

* * *

><p>Connor awakened with a splitting headache, but he barely noticed it. What he did notice was Abby lying at his side gently massaging his head and whispering things to him about him being "Her Poor Sweet Connor."<p>

Now this was a wakeup call Connor could get used to, minus the pain.

"Abs?" he questioned.

Immediately Abby's hands flew away from him, but she remained close by his side. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No, it's fine. Are you okay?"

Abby nodded, "Same as you I expect."

Connor let out a sound that could only be described as a growl, "He had no right to shoot you too."

"I kept him awake as much as you did, Connor, but it doesn't excuse him."

Connor sat up and grinned at her as he pulled something out of his backpack, "So you'll help me wake him up then with some sticky honey in his perfect hair?"

Abby raised her eyebrows as she pondered the situation and then sat up and grinned, "Of course!"

* * *

><p>Sarah wept as she walked. She had messed up big time, and she knew it. Her hunch had been so strong that she'd been sure whatever she was look for was close by. She'd promised herself she'd only be gone for ten minutes and then she'd return to camp before anyone even knew she was missing, but it hadn't happened like that.<p>

Instead, she hadn't found anything and she'd just kept telling herself that whatever it was that she was looking for was just beyond the next hill or group of trees. Suddenly she'd realised that she'd been walking all night and she was completely exhausted. On top of that, she would never have time to make it back to camp now, even if she knew where it was still (which she didn't), before the others were up and looking for her.

Instead of trying to return, she continued on further. She still had a hunch that something was wrong up ahead and since she'd already messed up this much, she may as well finish it. Finally though, she was too tired to walk any further, so she sat her back against a tree and sat there trying to stop her tears.

When she did finally stop crying, she suddenly felt as though she were being watched. She froze, frightened, and glanced slowly around her, but she didn't see anything. Quickly she jumped back to her feet and began to walk again a little quicker.

* * *

><p>It took everything Danny had in him not to go wrap his arms around Sarah when he saw her sitting by the tree with tears streaming down her face. He was still rather angry with her for wandering off on her own like this, but he hated to see her cry. He reasoned with himself that it was good for her, that maybe she'd learnt from it, so he decided to stay hidden in the bush where he was.<p>

Soon enough, she started to walk again, faster this time, and Danny did his best to catch up without tripping on any roots and drawing attention to his presence. Suddenly Sarah let out a scream and before Danny could react, she was gone.


	7. Connor's Charm

Connor and Abby were just sneaking out of the tent, honey in hand, when Abby noticed the note from Danny. She read it and frowned a bit, but Connor's face lit up. "So there's no Danny or Sarah around to make us behave today?"

Abby shook her head, a smile slowly appearing as she realised what was going through Connor's head, "Nope, guess not. I'm thinking… loud annoying singing right behind Becker the _entire _way?"

Connor nodded, "Yep, sounds about right." Then he glanced at Abby suspiciously, "But I'm surprised you're still going along with me on everything."

Abby grinned at him, "I know, it's weird, yeah? But don't forget he shot me too."

"Still, the marshmallow fight and all. I thought you were s'posed to be keeping me inline out here."

Abby shrugged, "What can I say, Connor Temple? Except maybe that you're a hell of a lot more fun than that lot and that sometimes, I just can't seem to resist your charm."

Connor's jaw dropped and Abby smiled appreciatively at his reaction. Thinking quickly, she kissed his cheek and then grabbed the squeeze bottle of honey from his hands and called to him, "Come on, if we're gonna do this we've gotta sneak in there before he wakes up."

Connor nodded, a silly grin on his face as he followed her out of the tent and into Becker's. His snores continued, but even so they crept in as carefully as if he'd been a slumbering smilodon. Abby poured the honey out into his hair and Connor quickly rubbed in it so that it covered his entire head. Then they both crawled out again and hid inside Danny's abandoned tent, knowing that it'd give them a little more time to watch him from the window when he woke up before they were found.

A bit emboldened by Abby's earlier proclamation and the way she'd been acting, Connor moved right beside her, until his arm brushed against hers, but he peered out the window pretending not to notice. Abby looked at himm but didn't say anything as she casually leaned against him. They sat in silence for a bit, neither wanting to move and both too shy to say anything, but suddenly the quiet was broken by one very loud shout from the tent across the way.

_"TEM-PLE!"_

Connor looked at Abby in disbelief, "Why do I always get the blame?"

Abby shrugged at him, "Well, technically, it was your idea."

"What do we do now?"

"Wait until he finds us," Abby grinned, leaning forward to stare out the window better as a furious Becker paced the campground near their empty tent. "Don't worry," Abby told Connor, "He likes us, he can't stay mad for too long."

* * *

><p>Danny stared at the spot where Sarah had just been and then stepped forward cautiously. He could still hear her, he just couldn't see her. It wasn't until he got quite close that he noticed she had fallen into what appeared to be some kind of huge trap. He thought he should leave her there for an hour or so while he guarded it without her knowing, just to really give her a good scare, but he was worried she might be hurt and she was most definitely crying. He sighed, anger replaced by concern, and made himself count out what probably felt like a very long five minutes to Sarah (as it seemed to take forever to himself) and then he tied a piece of rope that he had in his backpack to a tree and lowered it into the deep hole, dropping down beside her.<p>

Sarah jumped in surprise and then threw herself at him, "Danny!" Then she wincedand Danny knew that she was he was right when he'd thought she'd looked injured.

Danny held her for a couple minutes as she apologized into his chest and thanked him for coming after her, but then he pushed her away. "Sarah! What on_ earth_ were you_ thinking!?_"

Sarah sighed, "I thought I wouldn't be long, only a few minutes."

"You still should have told someone! Even if your hunch had taken you only_ two_ minutes from our campsite! What would you have done if you met the Spinosaurus?"

Sarah sighed and plopped down onto the ground, sitting with her back against the side of the hole they were in, her knees drawn up by her chest. "I'm sorry, Danny. I was scared that I was wrong, that there was nothing out here. You guys already think I'm not good enough to be on the team, what would you have thought if I'd led you all on a wild goose chase?"

"Sarah, who told you we think that?" Danny asked, sitting beside her and draping his arm around her shoulders.

"No one, but I can see it. You guys always tell me to stay back at the ARC."

"Has it ever occurred to you that we're worried about you because we _care _about you? Besides, we need you at the ARC. Nick didn't hire you for the field, he hired you to study legends so that he could learn to predict anomalies."

"Nick's dead and so are his ideas. My work is useless now to everyone. I thought, if I didn't prove I could be useful in other ways, maybe you wouldn't want me around." There was a bit of an edge to Sarah's voice. She didn't like to admit when she was worried about something and Danny knew that she was annoyed at herself for getting into a situation where she had to talk about it.

He sighed, and pulled her slightly closer, "Sarah, no matter what happens, I'm always going to want you around, okay?"

Instead of answering though, Sarah burst into a fresh set of tears and Danny didn't know if she was upset or relieved.


	8. Amusement

Danny pulled Sarah a bit closer to himself, wrapping his other arm around her waist. "Sarah, what is it?"

She quickly wiped her tears away, embarrassed. "I don't know," she whispered. "I ,guess it's just, I'm so relieved that you're here. I was terrified, Danny, I thought you guys would never find me, I'd gotten so lost. Plus, I haven't had any sleep and that makes me more emotional I suppose."

Danny nodded and kissed the top of her head, "Sarah, I'm always going to protect you, okay? But you'd make my job a hell of a lot easier if you didn't, you know, sneak off on me."

"Sorry," Sarah smiled sheepishly.

"Can I ask you something?" Danny asked her suddenly.

"Yeah, of course."

"Why didn't you want to share a tent with Abby?" He knew the question would come across as random, and perhaps it wasn't the best timing for it, but he didn't want to forget to ask her later.

Sarah frowned, "I knew Connor wanted to. Besides, it's easier to sneak out when I'm own my own." She laughed, but Danny saw it: the slight tilt of her head and the way she flipped her hair.

"Sarah, tell me the truth."

Sarah turned a bit in Danny's arms to stare at him, surprised that he had seen through her so quickly. She sighed and took a deep breath and then said quickly, "Don't get me wrong, Danny, Abby is great and I do really like her, but sometimes I feel as though I need to prove myself to her. Abby's as good as any of the guys and she's so brave. Sometimes it feels like she wants me to be her team mate, like she wants us together to prove that us girls are as strong as any of you, but I know I'm not and I'm worried she won't accept me. I know that's silly, but it's true. Plus, when I do mess up, she gets this expression on her face like she's amused by it, as though I were a child. Like when the embolotherium frightened me, she made that expression then."

Danny smiled at Sarah, "You know, you scare me sometimes."

"I… what?"

"Your ability to read people scares me, because I wonder what you know about me."

Sarah smiled, "I know that you have a lot of secrets, but I haven't figured out what they are yet. I know that you want acceptance form the team as much as I do, even if you pretend you are all rough and tough. And," she hesitated and then grinned up at him cheekily, "I know that for some reason or another, you like _me_ the best."

Danny laughed, "And that is perhaps the biggest of the secrets you mentioned. Perhaps you know me better than you think, eh?"

"P'rhaps."

"Well, that's all right. Wanna know what I know about you?"

Sarah nodded eagerly, "Okay."

"I know that you get frightened easily but the thing that frightens you most is the idea of someone finding out that you are frightened. I know that you get nervous when you lie and when you are nervous you tilt your head and flip your hair back. I know you went through the anomaly that the knight came through and," Danny grinned at her and then lowered his voice as he quoted her word for word, "I know that for some reason or another, you like _me_ the best."

Sarah blushed, unsure of how to reply, but it didn't seem to matter because a moment later she realised that she was kissing him hungrily and she really couldn't remember who had covered the gap between them first, nor did she care.

* * *

><p>It didn't actually take Becker long to find Connor and Abby. As soon as he'd discovered that <em>their<em> tent was empty, he'd headed for Danny's to tell the team leader that they were gone and found the pair cowering together as quietly as possible.

He wanted to be mad at them, he really did, but the sight was rather humorous and he couldn't help but to be touched at the sight of the way they clutched each other tightly for support. Those two really were made for each other, even _he _could see that one.

"Out!" he ordered, trying not to let them see that he was amused by their antics.

They both came scrambling out of the tent, still gripping tightly unto one another's sleeves.

"First," Becker said, "Where's Danny?"

Abby's face lit up with a grin. "He and Sarah left to follow a new lead. Said the three of us should continue on the trail alone."

"Oh you've _got _to be kidding. I'm stuck with the pair of you?"

"Looks that way."

Becker turned to Connor, "And, secondly, what exactly is in my hair?"

It was Abby though who answered again, "Honey. And I'm as much to blame as he is."

"Whose idea was it?" Becker asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Mine," Connor spoke up quickly, "And _you _shot Abby!"

Becker heard the protectiveness in Connor's voice and couldn't help but to let his guard down. He slapped him on the back and laughed, "You're right, Mate, I'm sorry. Shoulda just shot you. Still, with Danny gone, I'm in charge and you two are going to clean up the camp while I go find a stream to wash my hair in."

Then he turned and walked away with a grin on his face and no intentions to completely let them get away with it.


	9. Climbing Out

Danny and Sarah broke apart and stared at each other a bit awkwardly.

"I, did I start that kiss, or did you?" Sarah asked, fully prepared to apologize profusely if it had been her. She felt herself start to tilt her head nervously, and then forced herself not to. Danny would immediately know she was nervous. Funny thing was, she hadn't even noticed the habit herself until he had just pointed it out. Seemed he was right.

Danny grinned at her, "Not really sure," he replied, "but we can blame me if you want. Seems like something I would do, doesn't it?"

Sarah nodded, relieved. Danny was the more reckless of the pair; he was probably right, although she had a feeling it'd been both of them together. She shuffled a bit and leaned back against his chest, wondering if they needed to talk about it at all. Then she realised that she wanted to. She wanted to know if it'd been a one-off or if he meant it to happen again. Becker had told her that Danny liked, no, loved her.

"Sarah," Danny said cautiously, as if reading her mind. "You always let me touch you."

Sarah laughed slightly, "Yep, I know that."

"I think I should probably tell you now that unless you put a stop to it, or at least set a limit, I'm likely to test my boundaries."

Sarah raised her eyebrows, "Meaning?"

"Meaning if you don't want to be snogged again, you'd best speak up really, really soon."

Sarah laughed again, "Trust me, Danny, it's likely that I enjoyed that as much as you did. You can kiss me as often as you like..." Danny leaned forward but Sarah turned and put a hand on his chest, stopping him, "… after you get me out of this hole."

* * *

><p>Finding a stream to wash his hair in was easier said than done. There didn't seem to be any close by that wasn't too shallow and muddy, so Becker followed the nearest for a long way until he found a suitable spot. By the time he cleaned up, it was completely light out and he could tell that it was going to be a hot day. His hair was dry before he got back to the campsite where he found a very bored and impatient Abby and Connor waiting for him on a large rock.<p>

"You certainly took your time," Connor grumbled.

"I'd like to remind you why it was that I had to go wash my hair in the first place," Becker answered pointedly and Connor immediately shut up. Becker would've felt better about that if Abby hadn't immediately whispered something into Connor's ear after that and if Connor hadn't burst out into a grin.

* * *

><p>Abby had noticed that Connor looked a bit intimidated by Becker and she had whispered to him a reminder of why they had put honey in Becker's hair in the first place and about their plan to drive him crazy all day long. What had really made Connor grin though was the thought that Abby was still siding with him. He knew he wasn't the most professional person around, but he just wanted to have some fun on the job and it really was much more fun when Abby joined in instead of scolding.<p>

Abby did turn serious for a moment though as she asked Becker, "Do you find it weird that Danny and Sarah left all their stuff behind?"

Becker glanced at her, "They didn't take anything?"

"Well, Danny took his backpack, but Sarah's was still in her tent. All the weapons are still here as are both the tents, obviously."

"Hmmm," Becker replied thoughtfully. "To be honest, Abs, I really don't know what to make of that. Did he say where he was going?"

"We didn't talk to them. Danny left a note." Abby produced it for the soldier.

Becker read it a couple times over before sighing, "It doesn't say anything, very vague. I wonder if they were in a hurry."

"Do you think they're safe?" Connor asked. "Maybe we should look for them?"

"No," Becker responded immediately. "He gave us specific instructions in the note and we need to follow them. We go on. I don't know why they didn't take their belongings, but I'm sure they would have mentioned it if it was important enough for us to know."

"Or they just didn't want to carry them so they left extra for us," Connor whined.

"Man up, Con," Abby responded, "I'll carry your share."

Connor shook his head. He was sorely tempted to let her, but even he knew that it wouldn't be right. "It's okay, Abs, I've got it," he replied as he grabbed the biggest pack. Abby smiled at him encouragingly.

* * *

><p>The hole itself wasn't that deep, Danny saw as the morning light filtered in: probably only about ten feet. It should be easy for him to climb it with the rope, but now he remembered for the first time that Sarah had been injured with her fall.<p>

"What hurts?" he asked her.

"My right wrist and ankle. I landed strangely on them."

"Lemme see," Danny demanded.

Sarah held her wrist out to him and he ran his fingers gently over it, supporting her palm with his other hand. Sarah winced.

"Sorry," Danny sighed. "It's swollen. I doubt it's broken, but it does seem to be sprained."

He let go of her hand and opened his backpack to pull out a medical kit. Then he gently, but tightly, wrapped her wrist in a small bandage and moved his attention to her ankle. He examined it for a few moments before smiling and putting her shoe back on for her. "Nothing more than a bruise there. You'll live."

"Provided we don't run into the Spinosaurus," Sarah laughed.

"Don't even joke about that; I left all the weapons with the other three."

"Smart," Sarah said sarcastically.

Danny raised his eyebrows at her, "Did_ you_ bring a weapon?"

"Touché."

Danny mimicked her tone, "Smart. Once we're out of here, I'll see if I can't find us some sharp sticks to carry at least."

"I don't think I can climb that rope," Sarah pointed out.

"It's fine," Danny informed her. Then he laced his fingers together, palms upward, "Step into my hand."

Sarah did so, cautiously, with her uninjured foot. Danny boosted her as high as he could, her hands against the side of the dirt wall to balance. He was able to get her high enough that she could reach the ledge.

"Can you pull yourself up?" Danny called up to her.

Sarah shook her head, "No, not with my wrist like this. I need to be higher."

"Okay, just hold on. I'm not letting go of you, just going to move a bit," He stepped forward, closer to the wall and Sarah felt a bit unbalanced but she didn't worry about it since she knew that even if she did fall, Danny would catch her. Gently, Danny moved her foot until it was even with his shoulder and he instructed her to step back onto his shoulder instead. She did so carefully and shakily. When she had succeeded, she was able to see above the ledge and even rest her forearms upon it.

""I still can't pull myself over though," she told him.

"S'all right. Can you at least hold yourself up there in that position?"

Sarah lifted her foot from his shoulders, leaning forward to balance on the edge. "Yeah," she said, "but it's hard and not for long."

Danny nodded and climbed quickly up the rope and then grabbed her upper arms in his hands, lifting her up all the way. Sarah lay on her back on the grass and smiled up at him.

Danny lay on his side beside her, propping his head up with his arm to look at her. "Did you mean what you said earlier?"

Sarah nodded, "Of course."

Danny grinned and captured her lips with his own.

* * *

><p>Abby and Connor trailed a pace behind Becker, who was pretending not to notice that the duo were pelting him with the marshmallows that they had seemingly found again while cleaning up camp. He knew it was driving them crazy that he wasn't responding.<p>

The soft white bullets stopped quickly though and Becker knew that they must have run out. After that there was complete silence for a short period of time, interrupted only once by Abby who informed him that the honey must have been good for his hair because it looked even better than normal.

After a bit of whispering behind him though, the pair suddenly burst out singing and Becker knew that it was definitely for his own benefit. A grin spread across his face as he decided to give them both the shock of a lifetime. He fell back a step until he was between them and linked an elbow with each on them, loudly joining in with their rendition of Zippidee-Do-Dah.


	10. Breathtaking

So," Danny said as he climbed out of the hole a second time, having gone back to retrieve his backpack, "Which way?"

Sarah looked at him in surprise, "You mean you don't know the way back either?" She knew this should frighten her, but she had complete faith in Danny's ability to figure out a plan.

Danny shrugged, "I could get us back to the camp, but I'm sure Becker, Abby and Connor have moved on by now; I left them a note to. I figured we'd keep following your trail."

Sarah looked at him, surprised, "You believe me then, about their being something in this direction?"

"I trust your instincts, Sarah. Besides, you're always right."

Sarah chuckled, "And don't you ever forget that either."

Danny smiled, "Fair enough, as long as you don't forget that I'm always right too."

"Guess we'll always be in agreement with each other then."

"Right you are."

Sarah grinned and pointed west, "And to answer your first question, we go that-a-way."

Danny took Sarah's healthy hand in his own and they set off slowly in the direction she led.

* * *

><p>Connor and Abby had stopped singing immediately after Becker began, mainly because they'd both been shocked into silence. Abby tried to lock eyes with Connor but, even though she knew he was looking her way, she couldn't see him properly with Becker between them pulling them both along. It suddenly really bothered her that she wasn't able to gain that extra little bit of contact with Connor that she need to read what was going on in his mind.<p>

'Pathetic, Abigail,' she admonished herself. Since when had she become so dependant on Connor that she could miss him when he was two feet away?

"Maitland! Temple! Keep singing! That's an order," Becker commanded with a grin.

"Uh… right," Abby heard Connor say, getting over his shock, but still as surprised as before. He quickly joined back into the song.

Abby pulled her arm free of Becker's and quickly moved behind them to Connor's side, linking onto his elbow instead, leaving Connor in the middle. She ignored the surprised grins they'd both given her and joined in with the singing. After all, it had been a direct order.

* * *

><p>About three songs later, Becker suddenly stopped and turned into his usual serious self. "Did you guys hear that?" he asked.<p>

Connor and Abby shook their heads, "I didn't hear anything," Abby responded.

"Okay, you two stay here a bit. I'm going to head off the trail Northwest a moment. I thought the sound came from there."

"Shouldn't we go with you?"

"No, I need complete silence and stealth and, frankly, it'd be ridiculously hard to sneak up on something wearing as many colours as you two have on. Seriously, it looks like you were both attacked by a rainbow."

"At least we're not boring," Connor retorted. "Besides, the colours are good. They attract the creatures so they'll follow us back through the anomalies again."

"Fine, when I need Spinosaurus bait, I'll remember you volunteered. In the meantime, stay here and don't be loud," Becker warned them. "I'll be back soon."

Connor plonked himself down on a tall stump and Abby sat beside him, folding her hands in her lap, but leaning her head down onto his shoulder. Connor glanced at her and then back into the forest. She was definitely acting weird lately, but he knew better than to protest. Anyway, Becker's behaviour was even more bizarre.

Abby must have read his mind, because suddenly she lifted her head again, her eyes staring at the same distant tree that Connor's were. "What do you think got into Becker?" she asked.

Connor shrugged and looked at her, "I guess we did, yeah? That was way crazy. Might be the honey. Could've seeped into his scalp and made him act sweet."

Abby giggled, "Don't seem likely though, do it?"

"You know what else isn't likely? Live dinosaurs rampaging London, that's what."

Abby gave her head a tilt and pursed her lips as if thinking it through. Then she smiled at him and nodded, "Yeah, I've got no better explanation, so I'll buy the honey reason. It's the most fun explanation anyway."

Connor grinned at Abby, "You're fun, Abby. I like it when we team up together."

Abby grinned back, "I'm hard on you when I need to be, but I'm always on your team, Con."

Connor's smile grew even bigger, "We need a team name then, yeah?" He sounded so hopeful.

Abby groaned. He could really be a bit much on the geek factor at times, but she knew she could never disappoint him, not when he was making that expression at her. "Yeah, alright," she relented. "If you can come up with something I don't mind being associated with, we can have a team name."

Connor's face lit up so much that Abby couldn't resist. She leaned close to his ear and whispered, "And if I like the name enough, maybe I'll even consent to a secret handshake."

* * *

><p>"You know," Danny said to Sarah after a long comfortable silence as they walked, "I've been thinking about what you said about Abby. Why do you think she wants to be so tough all the time?"<p>

Sarah shrugged, "Could be a lot of reasons I guess, and we're not likely to find out. I'd guess she just loves her job and thinks she needs to prove herself to all the guys to keep it."

Danny shook his head, "No, that's not it. I've looked into her past work history, job related references et cetera. She's always been like this, before she worked at the ARC anyway. Besides, Abby's an original ARC member; she knows her job is secure."

"Then she may have had some reason to prove herself or toughen up in her earlier past. Childhood troubles, perhaps? She did take a lot of responsibility for Jack, didn't she? Maybe for some reason she'd had to be responsible for him when she was a child too. Still, it's not really any of our business."

"No, I know. Do you think, though, if she had gone through something in the past that hurt her that she would tell anyone? It's not good to bottle stuff up like that and I'm worried one day it'll come back and affect her, whatever it is."

Sarah sighed, "Well, I guess Jack would know, wouldn't he?"

"Not necessarily. She'd have gone out of her way to not tell him much, if I know her. She'd have wanted to protect him if possible."

"Danny, you worry too much sometimes about us all. If there's anything at all that is important, I bet she's at least already talked to Connor about it."

"You think?"

"I do. They're best friends and they're always together. He'd know."

"They're more than friends, even if they won't admit it," Danny corrected. "I just really have trouble picturing Connor being serious enough to discuss that kind of thing with her."

"I think that the reason they are so close is because they've seen sides of each other that no one else has," Sarah said. "She's probably seen him being strong and comforting and he's seen her vulnerability. At least, that's part of the reason, the other part is that she doesn't have to just act as tough as the guys when Connor is around, she really is. He lets her be the protector and that makes her happy and enjoy being around him."

Danny laughed, "When you studied Latin and Egyptian history, did you, per chance, do a side degree in psychology?"

Sarah smirked, "Maybe a class or two."

"I should've guessed."

Suddenly Sarah and Danny both stopped in their tracks. The view in front of them changed drastically as they reached the western edge of the forest. The stared in awed silence, hands gripping each other's tightly as they barely dared to breathe.

"Beautiful," Sarah said finally and Danny let the sincerity of the word wash over him as him.

"Breathtaking," he agreed, unable to come up with anything else to say that would describe the scene before them.


	11. Special Sheep Indeed

"Team Conby," Connor said with a grin. "It's a mixture of our names."

Abby frowned, "Why is your name first?"

"Because Team Abnor sounds dumb, not to mention everyone would tease us and call us Team Abnor-mal."

"You're right; it does sound dumb," Abby relented, "But what do you mean by "everybody"? Surely you're not actually going to tell everyone about this are you?"

Now it was Connor's turn to frown a bit, "Why not? Abby I'm… I'm so proud that you want to be on my side; I just gotta tell everyone!"

Abby's face softened into a smile, "Okay, Con, you can tell."

Connor's eyes lit up, "Really, Abs?"

Abby nodded. Suddenly she felt a bit ashamed of herself. Connor was her best friend and, in Abby's eyes, the greatest guy on earth. He was fun, smart, had a great sense of humour. He always kept her secrets and he was completely loyal to her. He'd do anything for Abby and she knew it. To be honest, she was proud too. She was proud every time he picked her first to go somewhere with him, or every time he told everyone how great she was. She was ashamed now as she realised that she never told him that. She treated him like a pesky kid and she knew he believed it was how she saw him. And she couldn't deny that he also did embarrass her at times, but she wished she wasn't like that and she knew it was more her own insecurities than Connor's actions that caused those feelings. The thing was that she didn't know how to tell him: didn't know how to express her feelings. The kiss from a couple weeks ago obviously hadn't worked since Connor had never made a move since.

"Abby, what's wrong?" Connor asked, looking unsure.

Abby realised she'd been silent for too long. "Sorry, Con," she smiled at him. "I was just thinking."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, seriously for once.

Abby smiled; she really did, she just didn't quite know how to start. "Maybe," she sighed.

Connor sat silent, waiting for her to decide.

"Connor, let's make up the handshake now," Abby said suddenly, changing the subject and grinning at him.

Connor frowned, seeing through her fake smile, "Abby, why don't we talk first? I know something is bugging you."

"Later."

"When?" Connor pressed. "Will you tell me after we invent our handshake?"

"I might."

"You know I won't tell anyone your secrets, Abs?"

Abby smiled at him, "I know that, Con. It's not really a secret even. I was just thinking about something I've been meaning to ask you for awhile now."

"Ask me now."

Abby took a deep breath before glancing at Connor and then down to her hands and then out to the forest. Finally she decided the ground would be the safest place to look. "Connor, I kissed you once."

Connor caught his breath in surprise, "Oh." It wasn't exactly new information; he'd thought about it every spare moment he could since that day. What surprised him was that she was bringing it up now, after so long. To be honest, he'd thought she'd forgotten. He was silent for a moment and then looked at her, "But Abby, that's not a question."

"I guess I want to know, why don't you ever do stuff like that?"

Connor was really confused now, "Like kiss you, you mean?"

Abby nodded, "Yeah. You always say nice things about me, but you never try to kiss me or hold my hand or anything. It's always me that does stuff like that and I'm never sure if it's okay or not. You act like it's okay. You smile at me and you've never pushed me away. Your response is positive, but I worry that if you actually liked it, you'd initiate it yourself sometimes you know. I wish that, if I was out of place, you'd tell me."

She finally looked up and saw that Connor was staring at her, mouth open, in shock. Before he could respond though, Becker suddenly came back into the clearing. Connor saw Abby wince at the interruption as she quickly looked away from him.

"Guys, I found our friend Spino. He's about a mile from here and he's huge. Sorry Abs, but we're gonna have to kill him. There's no sign of an anomaly so it must have closed already and you cannot keep a Spinosaurus; there's just no way."

Abby didn't say anything; she just stood and followed Becker. She could feel Connor's eyes on her still and she felt a bit embarrassed, but suddenly he was at her side and she felt him grab her hand and squeeze it. She looked up at his face and saw that he was smiling at her and she felt her heart leap a bit when she saw the tenderness in his eyes. She gripped his hand tighter and bit her lip as she stared into the wood.

* * *

><p>"Wow," Danny said as he stepped forward. In his amazement, he had dropped Sarah's hand. Suddenly he started to laugh and Sarah looked at him curiously. "Special Sheep Indeed!" he chortled, "These aren't wild! This is our Farmer's land. Look, there's the barn." He pointed over the valley a bit below them to the building.<p>

"You mean…" Sarah started in a questioning tone.

"Yep. It's not a sheep farm; it's a Stegosaurus farm! There's hundreds of them!"

"How the hell did he keep that a secret?"

"Well his entire land is shrouded either by forest or cliffs; I'm sure that helps! Couldn't have been easy though."

"No wonder he was convinced it wasn't a bear attacking his flock. Abby'll want to see this."

Danny frowned, "Abby'll want to keep them all is what she'll do. There's no anomaly to send them back through."

"They're tame, obviously the farmer has been breeding them," Sarah agreed, "Abby'll kill you if you suggest putting them down. We might have to let her keep them."

"What?" Danny jerked his head around to stare at Sarah, "What on earth would she do with them?"

"Well, Lester will be relieving the sheep farmer of his farm I'm sure, so she can probably keep them right here. The ARC will pay for someone to look after them for her and we can put up a guard around the land."

Danny sighed, "We'll see. We'll have to discuss with Lester I supposed. Now, should we confront the farmer first, or go find the others?"

"Stegos have been here for ages, they aren't going anywhere and the Spinosaurus might be. Let's find the others. I'm sure if they've been walking all this time they aren't that far away now. We should be able to cut across and find them pretty quickly."

Danny nodded and took her hand again as he followed her lead.

* * *

><p>Becker noticed with amusement that both Connor and Abby were completely silent as they walked and he didn't think it had anything to do with either his singing or the Spinosaurus. For one thing, they were holding hands again and for another, they kept glancing at each other nervously and then looking away again, but always sharing a secret smile first.<p>

After awhile, Connor finally turned to Becker and spoke, "Hey! Action Man! Guess what?"

Becker raised his eyebrows questioningly, "What?"

"Me and Abs formed our own team called Team Conby and we're gonna have a secret handshake and everything!"

"That's cute, Guys. I had a secret handshake with one of my friends once when I was eleven."

His tone was patronizing, but Connor wasn't at all fazed by his taunting. Instead he eagerly asked, "Really? Show us the handshake!"

"I can't. One, I don't remember it and two, I promised her I'd never show anyone and I always keep my promises, no matter how silly."

"_Her? _Was she cute?"

Becker chuckled, "Yeah, she was actually."

"First girlfriend?"

"Hardly. I was eleven."

"First crush then?"

"Still no, I didn't think of her like that."

"Why not?"

Becker laughed, "She was four. She was my neighbour's granddaughter. Used to follow me everywhere and chat non-stop. I hated it at first, but she was the only other kid in the neighbourhood and I grew to enjoy her company and chatter. Anyway, she always said I was super strong because I gave her piggy back rides."

"Thought you said_ friend,_ not babysitting charge." Abby laughed.

Becker grinned at her, "You call Connor your friend, don't you?"

Abby laughed harder, "Point taken."

Connor stared at them, "I do _not _need a babysitter."

Abby squeezed his hand, "We're teasing you Connor."

Becker's eyebrows raised, "I beg to differ."

Abby ignored it and instead asked, "You never talk your past. Tell us more about this girl. Was she special?"

Becker shrugged, "I guess for a little while. My parents were proud of me for taking her under my wing and her grandparents gave me milk and cookies so I guess I thought it was worth it. She was a smart little thing. She always wore Disney Princess costumes, but she never asked me to play dress up. Instead she wanted to play Cops and Robbers. I made us a fort and set up a secret club, just me and her, but that was mostly because there was no one my own age to do that kind of thing with and I always wanted a secret club like the boys in the novels I'd read. The secret handshake was her idea, she'd seen it on TV."

"What was her name?"

"Jessica. Can't remember her last name though. She was about six when she moved away. By that time I was a teenager and too old to be interested in her games anymore anyway, so I barely noticed that she was gone."

"Maybe one day you'll meet her again," Abby said.

Becker shrugged. "Doubt I'd recognize her even if I did," he laughed. "Now shush, we're getting close."

They all froze as they heard a crash in the forest quite close to where they stood.


	12. Spinosaurus

Sarah and Danny suddenly heard a loud crash and hesitated.

"It might be the Spinosaurus," Sarah said.

"I hope not; we have no weapons."

"Should we keep going?"

"Cautiously. Don't let it see you. Might not be Spino and we've gotta find out for certain."

"Right." Sarah moved closer to Danny's side and he knew she was scared. He squeezed her hand tighter.

"Sarah? You're safe. Okay?"

"Okay."

A sudden roar filled the air, telling them that the crash had more than likely been the Spinosaurus indeed, but it was followed almost immediately by a much more hopeful sound: a gun shot and a yell of, "Oi!" that they immediately recognized as Abby.

Danny grinned at Sarah, "Help has arrived and we'd better return the favour. Let's go!"

They ran towards the sound, peeking cautiously through the trees so that they would be able to assess the situation before rushing into it. Becker, Abby and Connor had surrounded the Spinosaurus and were intently focused on it. For the moment, they did not notice that Danny and Sarah had rejoined them. Danny picked up a large stick and handed it to Sarah for a little bit of protection.

"They've got all the bags over there," he pointed to Sarah. "We need to get our guns before it notices us."

Becker and Connor were shooting it over and over again and the Spinosaurus was roaring angrily, circling between them all as if debating who to attack first. Danny knew they'd run out of bullets before they managed to bring the large creature down and he was sure that the dinosaur wouldn't delay the attack much longer. He ran behind Becker towards his bag and his sudden movement triggered the Spinosaurus' attention. It charged after him and then even Abby started shooting, as much as she hated using real bullets on any living thing.

"Danny!" Sarah yelled.

"Stay back, Sarah!" he ordered too late as she rushed toward it and hit it hard with the stick. Confused, the dinosaur stopped it's charge and looked around before changing it's course of direction and heading for Sarah instead. A few more bullets from Abby to it's right leg caused it to fall and Sarah moved away just before it landed on her.

Danny grabbed his gun from his backpack and ran forward. Becker and Connor had officially run out of bullets and the creature was trying to get back up. Danny shot a couple more times at the leg that was most injured to stop it from rising.

"Nice of you to show up!" Becker called out to Danny.

"Becker!" he yelled, ignoring the comment, "Take Abby's gun from her and help me finish it off!"

Becker obeyed and noticed from the corner of his eye that Connor had gone to Abby's side and pulled her around so she wouldn't see the creature's dying moment. The Spinosaurus had not actually been attacking anyone when they had found it, which made it's death harder for her.

When the job was done, Sarah appeared at Danny's side. Danny smiled, "I guess you saved me, Sare."

Sarah shrugged, "Yep, you owe me."

"As soon as we're back I'll take you to dinner anywhere you want to go."

"Egypt?"

"What?"

"I've never actually been there you know. I've spent a lot of time in the surrounding areas on archaeological digs back in my school days, but never had the opportunity to visit the place I most longed to see. You did say anywhere?"

Danny laughed, "I was thinking somewhere in London, but yeah, why not? I don't think it'll be as soon as we're back then though, but when I can convince Lester to give us some time off, okay."

Sarah stared at him, "You do know I was joking, right?"

Danny grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him, "No matter. I'll take you there anyway."

Becker raised his eyebrows at the pair, "Do I get to come?"

"Nope, Sarah only." Danny laughed, "I'm not rich you know."

"I'll pay my own way."

"Sarah only." Danny repeated simply and Becker grinned at the expected answer.

* * *

><p>Abby was fine. Really. She'd been saddened by the creature's death of course, but she knew it'd been necessary and she got over it quickly, just grateful that it hadn't had the chance to kill anyone. Still, she made no effort to move from Connor's arm, which was draped around her shoulder. It was just for comfort, she knew that, but it didn't change the fact that he'd held her hand earlier and that he'd been the one to initiate that. She knew he wouldn't have done so after their little talk if he hadn't wanted to pursue their relationship further. He just wouldn't do that to her.<p>

* * *

><p>Connor watched Abby carefully. He still couldn't believe what she'd told him earlier. Abby wanted Connor to hold hand and kiss her! That's what she'd said. It wasn't the first time he'd heard her say stuff like that of course, but the other times had all been in his dreams or imaginings. This time it was real. Vaguely he wondered what exactly he had done to earn this. After all, this was Abby: the girl his friends Tom and Duncan had always referred to as, "the hot blonde." Abby was the equivalent to all the girls in high school that he'd come to refer to as The Untouchables. Heck, for that matter, Abby was up there with The Unlookables: the girl's that would kill you in a matter of speaking if you so much as glanced at them because they knew you weren't worthy of it if you liked computers and dinosaurs. Only, Abby was better than them all and she both let him look and touch her. Stuff like that didn't even happen in movies. In the movies the geeks always had to change first and learn how to become cool to get their girls, but Connor was still just Connor.<p>

"Con?" Abby's soft voice interrupted his thoughts, "What you thinking 'bout?"

"You, Abs, and how lucky I am to have you in me life. Can we make our handshake now?"

Abby laughed and glanced at the others. Sarah, Danny, and Becker were busy discussing what to do with the Spinosaurus' body. She turned back to Connor and smiled, "Yeah, alright. Just wait here a moment."

She ran over to the others and informed them that she and Connor were going to go for a little walk.

Danny glanced at her, "Stay within a quarter mile and take your gun, just in case."

Abby nodded and Becker returned her gun to her. Abby returned to Connor. "Come on," she said to him. "We can't make up a secret handshake while the others are watching or it wouldn't be a secret, would it?"

Connor nodded and followed her eagerly. When they were alone, they stopped and sat on a fallen log, straddling it to face each other. "Alright," Abby said, "I'm new to this so you'd better come up with the shake. How do we start?"

"Well, it's gotta start with a real handshake," Connor said, extending his hand.

Abby took it and smiled, letting Connor shake her hand gently up and down a couple of times. "And then," Connor continued, "I think we should go like this…" He did something a bit complicated and Abby tried to follow along. Connor used his free hand to guide hers. When she finally managed the step, Connor grinned at her. "Tom made that up."

Abby looked up from their joined hands to his face in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"It was part of my secret handshake with Tom. He would have wanted it to live on. I incorporated another part into my handshake with Duncan and there's one more little part I'll always keep secret."

"Wow," Abby said quietly, "Connor, I feel honoured. You always make me feel special; you know that, right?"

Connor smiled at her, "You are special, Abby. Now let's do the rest." He moved his hand so that his fingers entwined with hers. Then he grinned at her and pulled his her hand to his mouth, kissing the back of it.

"Is that part of it?" Abby laughed.

"Yep." Connor grinned, "It's a really important part too."

"I see. I like that part. Then what?"

Connor thought for a moment and then looked at her hopefully. "Then you should kiss my cheek."

Abby nodded and learned forward to do so without letting go of his hand. She gave him a little peck and then resumed her position on the log.

"Perfect!" Connor grinned. "Then it finishes the way we started, with a normal handshake."

They did so and when they had completed that, Connor tightened his grip on her hand so that she wouldn't pull away. He covered it with his other hand too and smiled. "Abby, thanks for humouring me with things like this. I know you think I'm a total geek at times."

Abby shrugged, "And other times you're a hero. It's all part of the total Connor package that I love so much. Trust me, I wouldn't change your geekiness for the world."

Connor stared at her, silent for a moment. Then he hesitantly asked her, "You love me, Abby?"

Abby looked startled. She hadn't really realised what she'd said. The she relaxed and smiled, "Yeah, of course I do."

"Abby, I want… I mean… I want, you know, to tell people that you're my girlfriend now."

Abby smiled gently, "Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea, Con. We should do that."

Connor's face lit up as he leaned forward to kiss her.

* * *

><p>"There's no way we can drag this thing back out of the forest without being noticed," Becker groaned. "It's way too big. We should bury it and buy the land to keep people away from the spot."<p>

Danny nodded his agreement, "We'll get some more soldiers out here to move it. Sarah and I found a giant hole we can use."

"Good thinking," Sarah complimented Danny.

Becker suddenly turned to look at the pair suspiciously as he remembered something, "Where've you two been, anyway?"

Danny lowered his voice a bit, "Let's just way we discovered the special sheep that are immune to wolf attacks. It's the breed called Stegosaurus. There's an entire farm of them about a mile from here."

Becker's mouth dropped open, "How the hell are we going to deal with that?"

"Well, better not say anything yet in case Lester makes us put them down. If that's the case, it's better Abby never knows about them. However, Sarah and I were thinking the ARC should just buy it for her."

"It's too far out of London. How's she gonna do that commute?"

"Oh, we can hire others to take care of it for her, but Abby will be in charge of all it's operations and can check up on them sometimes. We'll hire people to guard it on shifts until an anomaly opens up that leads to the Kimmeridigan."

Becker shook his head and laughed, "She'll love it. Now come on, we'd better go find them and let's go home."

Sarah and Danny nodded and followed his lead, sharing surprised glances as Becker burst into song as they walked.


	13. Surprises

**The Final Chapter! Thanks so much for reviewing everyone that did!**

It took a day for Lester to get the farm transferred over to the ARC and a week for Sarah to convince him to give it over to Abby.

Abby and Connor were sitting side-by-side in the menagerie looking over the mammoth when Lester approached.

"You know," he said. "I've been thinking. We don't really have much room for a mammoth at the ARC and she's probably not happy indoors all the time."

"What would you suggest?" Connor asked. "We can't exactly put her back on the M25."

"No, of course not. Don't be silly, Temple. That'd never do. I was thinking we should have a farm: a very secluded, very private, very heavily guarded farm. I've made all the arrangements and I'll have her moved next week. Abby, I'm giving you the farm and I've told all the men to answer to you concerning anything Herbivore."

Abby gasped and then flung her arms around Lester's neck. Lester quickly backed away, "Careful, careful. I've got a reputation to protect you know, and you've got a boyfriend watching."

" 'bout ready to hug you meself," Connor grinned at his boss.

"I'm sure that's not necessary. Now, Abby, you should be aware that there were already some other animals on the farm that we chose. Couldn't be helped. The location is perfect for a private farm, it's even sheltered enough that it can't be seen from the air and we couldn't find anywhere else that would do. The previous owners couldn't really take the animals with them when they moved out, so it was a package deal. I trust you can look after them too?"

"Thank-you, Lester!" Abby exclaimed, finally finding her voice.

"Don't thank me. To be perfectly honest, it was Danny and Sarah's idea."

Abby looked surprised. Neither Danny nor Sarah had ever really shown that much interest in the mammoth before.

"Well don't just stand there," Lester continued, "Go check it out and let me know if there's anything we'll need." He handed Connor a piece of paper, "This is the address. You'd best go with her."

Connor took it and the pair ran towards the ARC parking garage in an excited rush.

Lester glanced at the Mammoth. "Oh don't fret. I'll find reasons to check up often and visit you, just so long as you don't tell on me."

* * *

><p>Danny leaned across the table that Sarah was working at. "Sarah, you've been at that all day. Come on and give it a break."<p>

"I _am _tired," Sarah admitted, putting down the artefact. "Alright, I'll stop for a bit now."

"Good. Let's get out of here." He took her hand and led her towards the exit. "Did you know?" he asked, "that Lester sent Connor and Abby off to go check out the farm today?"

Sarah turned to him, "Did he? I wish I'd have seen that."

"Well, from what I understand, he didn't actually tell them about the Stegosaurus'. That's still a secret." He opened the door to the passenger seat of his car for Sarah to get in.

When they were on the road, Sarah turned to Danny. "You know, Lester doesn't really seem the type to surprise his staff. What excuse did he give Abby about buying her a farm then?"

"Told her it'd be a better environment for the mammoth to live in."

"Is he really going to keep the mammoth there too?"

"Yep. Should be fine. They'll get along. Anyway, what's a Special Sheep farm without a Special Sheep Dog?"

Sarah burst out laughing. "Fine, better get a hold of Connor and Abby and tell them we've finally come up with a name for their mammoth. We'll call her Lassie."

Danny chuckled as he turned the car onto the motorway, and that's when Sarah suddenly realised that she had no idea where he was taking her. "Danny, where're we going exactly?"

Danny took one hand off the wheel for a moment to pull something out of his pocket and hand it to her. Sarah scrutinized the piece of paper for a moment and then sudden gave a small, very un-Sarah-like shriek, "Oh my Gosh! Danny! Egypt?" She stared at the two plane tickets in disbelief.

Danny smiled, "I owe you dinner, do I not? A promise is a promise. It's been Lester approved and I've got luggage for you in the boot."

Sarah smiled, "If you weren't driving right now, I'd kiss you."

"I take rain cheques."

"Granted."

Danny just grinned.

* * *

><p>The ARC seemed unusually quiet. Becker knocked on Lester's office door and then entered.<p>

"Why bother to knock? I never said you could come in."

"Sorry, Sir. It's just that eighty percent of the core team is missing in action."

"So it would seem. I've got the stand bys on call."

"Do you know where they are then?"

Lester put down his pen and paper. "Abby and Connor are en route to the Special Sheep Farm and Danny and Sarah are on holiday in Egypt. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy going through some new CV's. Do you not have any security stuff to do?"

"CV's for what?"

"Minister thinks we need a field co-ordinator. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know a Miss Parker, would you?"

Becker shook his head, "Sorry, Sir, never heard of her."

"Ah, well, thought not. She seems the most qualified so far and I was reading her file. Coincidentally, she used to live not only in the same neighbourhood as you, but also on the same road. She is, however, a fair bit younger."

Becker froze for a second and then asked carefully, "What's her first name?"

"Jess."

"I do remember her actually, Sir, but she was very young. She wouldn't remember me anymore. She loved toy guns. You should hire her, Sir."

Lester raised his eyebrows, "Guns, eh? How as her aim?"

"We had water guns, Sir. She soaked me every time."

"Ah, too bad we don't need someone else for the field. Still, a handy skill to know in our job and she does have the best CV. Alright, here's her number," Lester handed Becker a piece of paper, "Since you apparently have nothing else to do, I'll leave it to you to arrange the interview. Now go on, spit spot."

Becker grinned and thanked Lester before ducking out of the room.

* * *

><p>The farm that Abby and Connor pulled up to was secluded indeed. The driveway itself was over a mile long and could barely be seen from the road. They passed five ARC security guards on their way in, all of whom checked their ID's. When they finally reached the farmhouse, a soldier greeted them as they clamoured out of the car.<p>

"Welcome. I've done my best, Ms. Maitland, to keep everything under control here, but if you need anything else just let me know. Lester has ordered us to basically serve the two of you and the animals. By the way, I'm Captain Bruin."

Abby smiled at the man. "Thank-you, Captain Bruin. For now, we just want to look around, but we'll call you if we need you."

Captain Bruin left and Connor grabbed Abby's hand, squeezing it tightly as they entered the house. They found that it was furnished and quite comfortable looking. Connor plopped down on the chesterfield and propped his feet up. "We should live here, Abs."

Abby shoved him over a little and sat in front on him. "It's too far away, but it'd make a nice vacation spot. I reckon we can spend a lot of weekends here, yeah? Rex'll love it." She leaned down and kissed Connor gently and he sighed happily.

They stayed on the couch, just cuddling, for a few minutes longer before Abby stood up. Connor grabbed her hand and tried to pull her back to him. "Don't go."

Abby laughed, "I wanna see the rest of this place." She pulled back at him, "Come on, Connor."

Connor stood and followed her around as they explored the remainder of the house. When they reached the kitchen, Abby let go of Connor and turned the tap on.

"Want some water?" she asked him, opening a couple of cupboards to find the glasses.

"I'm good, Abs," Connor shook his head. He moved to the back door and opened it onto a wooden patio. He stopped outside and then gasped at the scene before him. Then quickly he gathered his wits as best he could and ran back in.

"Abby!" he shouted, almost in her ear.

Abby jumped back, startled, spilling water all over her bright blue tee-shirt. She glared at him, annoyed.

"What?"

"Sorry, but Abs, you have to see this! Remember how Lester said there were animals here already?"

"Ye-es," Abby replied slowly, wondering what Connor was getting at.

"Look!" Connor moved behind her and put a hand on each of her shoulders, gently pushing her out the back door. Abby gasped with amazement when she saw the field of Stegosaurus'. She turned to Connor and her eyes met his, reading the awe that he felt as well.

"Connor, they're…" She stopped, not knowing what word described them best.

"Yeah," Connor nodded in agreement. "They are."

"Can we keep them?"

Connor laughed, "Seems to be the plan, yeah? Guess we'd better go introduce ourselves, yeah?"

Abby smiled and took his hand, setting down her glass of water on the patio table. "Yeah," she agreed as they walked out together into the sheep field to meet their new pets.


End file.
